


Redrum

by scullywolf



Series: TXF: Scenes in Between [173]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 06:43:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11892222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scullywolf/pseuds/scullywolf
Summary: On some level, she's surprised it's taken this long for one of them to wake the other with a phone call in the middle of the night.





	Redrum

He is apologetic when she answers the phone a little before 3am. 

“Agent Scully, it’s John Doggett. I'm sorry to bother you at this hour, but something real weird’s just been dumped in my lap. It’s not exactly official FBI business, but… well, I'm a little out of my depth here. I could sure use your help.”

On some level, she’s amazed it has taken this long for one of them to wake the other with a phone call in the middle of the night, but the fact that it’s not about a case is stranger still. Over the past nearly-six months, they have developed a good working partnership. There is a certain formality to it, however. He still only ever addresses her as “Agent Scully” -- never just “Scully,” which she appreciates, and certainly never “Dana.” In the field, she trusts him to have her back, without question. She respects him as a colleague. She’s even grown to like him, something she never would have expected after the combative and antagonistic circumstances under which they first met.

They work well together. But they are not friends. So for him to be calling about something unrelated to work is very strange, indeed.

“What’s going on, Agent Doggett?”

“Does the name Martin Wells mean anything to you?”

She frowns. “Not that I can recall. Should it?”

“He’s an old buddy of mine. A prosecutor I knew from when we were both in New York, but he lives in Baltimore these days.” 

“I’m sorry, he doesn’t sound familiar.”

“Well, Martin shows up at my house out of the blue about twenty minutes ago, right? Starts going on about how his wife is gonna be murdered in their apartment a little after four o’clock this morning. Won’t tell me how he knows this, or why, but he asks _me_ to call the Baltimore PD to vouch for him. Now, I haven’t so much as heard from this guy in three years. We’re not exactly thick as thieves these days. Why in the world he picks _my_ door to bang on at two AM is beyond me. But that’s not even the weirdest part.”

She’s still at a loss as to how she figures into all of this. “What’s the weirdest part?”

“As he’s running out the door to go drive up to Baltimore and try to prevent this murder he claims is gonna happen, he says _you_ can explain to me how he’s apparently capable of predicting the future. So I ask him how in the hell you two know each other, and he says you don’t. Says he met you yesterday, but you won’t meet him til tomorrow.”

All right. That definitely qualifies as weird. But not, perhaps, without explanation.

“Does Mr. Wells have any history of substance abuse? Alcohol or otherwise?”

“None. I mean, like I said, I haven’t seen him in a few years, so it’s not impossible, but… He didn’t seem out of it, Agent Scully. A little freaked out, sure, but not in like a ‘hearing voices’ sort of way. Or like he was hopped up on something. I don’t know. My gut’s telling me to take him at his word and see this through.”

“Well, I’m afraid I don’t know how much help I can offer you here, Agent Doggett. If you’re looking for a medical opinion, I would have to examine him myself before I could even begin to guess--”

“Actually, I’m on my way to his apartment right now. I know it’s asking a lot, but I was hoping you might be willing to come along.”

She blinks. “To Baltimore? At three in the morning? I thought you said you vouched for him with the local PD. Surely they can follow up on any threat that proves credible.”

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right, it’s just…”

The line goes quiet, and Scully realizes that this, this moment right here, is something that never would have happened six months into her partnership with Mulder. Mulder would have gone off on his own, without backup, without so much as calling to let her know where he was headed. He would have argued that he didn’t think it was worth bothering her, and when something inevitably happened to him, whether he ended up hurt or in trouble with local law enforcement or whatever, she would have been pissed. 

Agent Doggett is asking for her help. If she shuts him down now, he might not ask again.

It’s this realization that makes her pinch the bridge of her nose and suppress a sigh of resignation before saying, “I can be ready in five minutes.”


End file.
